The company bought the four-story Class B office building in 2007 for $12.6 million from Lakecrest II Memphis LLC, subsequently filing the loan that’s now in default.

Built in 1981, the building sits on 8.13 acres along the south side of Primacy Parkway where the road curves east of Saint Francis Hospital-Memphis. The Shelby County Assessor of Property’s 2012 appraisal was $8.6 million.

The lender appointed Robert J. Pinstein of the law firm Bourland, Heflin, Alvarez, Minor & Matthews PLC as substitute trustee. He will conduct a substitute trustee’s sale Feb. 8 at noon on the steps of the Shelby County Courthouse.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

– Daily News staff

New Breed Logistics Expands in Memphis

New Breed Logistics executives announced Wednesday, Jan. 16, they are expanding their Memphis operations in a move that will create nearly 500 warehouse and distribution jobs.

New Breed, based in High Point, N.C., is a third-party logistics provider. The privately held company is hired by companies to help them design and operate their supply chains. New Breed also manages warehouse space at more than 75 distribution centers that employ more than 7,500 people around the world.

The $23 million expansion investment will enlarge New Breed’s Memphis facility at 4895 Citation Drive in the Oakhaven-Parkway Village distribution center district and New Breed plans to lease additional space at 4585 Quality Drive in the same area.

The expansion by the privately held company was announced through the office of Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Haslam’s Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Hagerty.

Hours after the announcement Wednesday, the board of the local Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) was to vote on accepting the state economic development grant that was the government incentive for the expansion.

The announcement follows an increase in activity by third-party logistics companies late last year as noted by Memphis-area industrial brokers. The new leases have been particularly noticeable in medical/pharma-related logistics.

Some of that activity has been south of the state line because of new Mississippi tax breaks aimed at attracting health care-related businesses.

New Breed’s clients include not only those kind of companies but such brand names as Boeing, Bombardier, Honeywell, Navistar and Nokia.

Pinnacle Reorganization Approved in Bankruptcy Court

The approval of the plan for the Memphis-based regional carrier came Wednesday, Jan. 16, the day after union pilots ratified a new contract agreement with Pinnacle.

Pinnacle president and CEO John Spanjers called the set of agreements with creditors and employees groups a “significant milestone” in Pinnacle’s move to emerge from the bankruptcy company leaders filed in April 2012.

With court approval, Pinnacle now has until Feb. 15 to file a plan acceptable to Delta Air Lines and the creditors committee.

The plan gives Delta or a Delta affiliate the ability to acquire the equity in Pinnacle after it emerges from bankruptcy.

Delta, through Delta Connection, will provide an additional 40 CRJ-900 aircraft with a capacity for 76 passengers to Pinnacle starting in the fall of 2013 under the plan. Those additions to Pinnacle will continue through the end of 2014.

Meanwhile, Pinnacle will phase out its smaller 50-seat CRJ-200 aircraft over the next two to three years.

– Bill Dries

Tax Sale Draws 65 Bidders, Collects $212,000 in Overdue Taxes

The results are in for the most recent Shelby County Tax Sale held Jan. 3-4 that drew 65 registered bidders.

The sale, the second of the fiscal year, featured more than 400 properties. A total of 26 properties were sold to individuals for $212,721.69 and another 403 were purchased by the county, said Wendie Blanton with the Shelby County Trustee’s Tax Sale Department.

Funds from individual purchasers are used to satisfy the delinquent property tax debt and fees with any remaining balance held by the Chancery Court Clerk’s Office for proper statutory distribution following the one-year redemption period, said Shelby County Trustee David Lenoir. Tax sales are jointly administered by the Shelby County Trustee and Chancery Court Clerk.

Properties and parcels purchased by the county will be marketed through the Shelby County Land Bank once the required one-year redemption period has expired, Shelby County Trustee David Lenoir said. The next Shelby County tax sale is April 9-10.

For information about properties available through the tax sale, call 432-4829, or visit www.shelbycountytrustee.com and click the “Tax Sale” link.

Paragon National Bank Expands Board of Directors

The new members are Mary McDaniel, Lauren Boggs McHugh and Pete Stark. They’ll each serve a three-year term and work closely with the bank’s 10 other board members.

The board expansion comes on the heels of a big 2012 for Paragon, during which the bank saw a successful capital campaign and completed its eighth straight quarter of profitability.

McDaniel is a veteran of FedEx Express, which she retired from in 2010 as vice president-air operations material and corporate sourcing.

Since 2007, McHugh has served as president of Huey’s restaurants. And since July, Stark has served as chief financial officer for Physicians Pharmacy Alliance.

– Andy Meek

Co-Chairs Named for NAACP Freedom Fund Gala

Tim Brown, president of the Kroger Delta Division and Shannon A. Brown, senior vice president of human resources and diversity officer for FedEx Express, are the co-chairmen of the 37th annual Memphis NAACP Freedom Fund Gala.

Brown will be the corporate fundraising co-chairman and Brown will be the community co-chairman.

The event is the largest fundraiser of the year for the civil rights organization. This year it will be held March 20 at the Memphis Cook Convention Center.

The gala has a tradition of having biracial chairmen and chairwomen who are business leaders.

The Memphis branch of the NAACP began holding the galas in 1977, the year that Memphis attorney and judge and FCC commissioner Benjamin L. Hooks became national executive director of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization.

– Bill Dries

US Consumer Prices Unchanged in December

Lower gas costs offset more expensive food and higher rents to keep a measure of U.S. consumer prices flat last month.

The Labor Department said Wednesday that food prices increased 0.2 percent in December from November. Rents and airline fares also rose. Gasoline prices fell a seasonally adjusted 2.3 percent.

The flat reading of the December consumer price index caps a year when inflation slowed. Consumer prices rose only 1.7 percent in 2012, down from 3 percent in 2011.

Food prices increased 1.8 percent last year, down from 4.7 percent in 2011. Gas prices rose just 1.7 percent last year. That followed annual gains of nearly 10 percent in 2011 and roughly 14 percent in 2010.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices ticked up just 0.1 percent in December compared with November. And core prices rose only 1.9 percent in 2012. That’s below the Federal Reserve’s inflation target of 2 percent. And it’s lower than 2011’s increase of 2.2 percent.

Prices for household furniture, clothing and used cars declined in December from November.

Mild inflation leaves consumers with more money to spend, which is good for the economy. Lower inflation also makes it easier for the Fed to continue with its efforts to accelerate the economy. If the Fed were worried that prices are rising too fast, it might have to raise interest rates.